Nationality Law approved in Knesset Ministerial Committee on Legislation

After being frozen at the end of 2015, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved the Nationality Law this morning. According to MK Yariv Levin, “This is a basic law, which has the simple objective of safe-guarding Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

The Knesset Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved today MK Avi Dichter’s Nationality Law, despite the fact that the bill was frozen at the end of 2015. The bill, which was signed by 13 other Likud MKs aside from Dicther as well as MKs from the Ha-Bayit Ha-Yehudi and Yisrael Beiteinu, declares that Israel is both a Jewish and democratic state.

"I decided today to put an end to the foot-dragging and approve the Nationality Law at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation," MK Yariv Levin (Likud), who instructed the Knesset Ministerial Committee on Legislation to draft a government bill on the matter within two months, stated. "We've been waiting to discuss and make a decision on this legislation for too long. This is a basic law, which has the simple objective of safeguarding Israel's status as the nation-state of the Jewish People. I don't understand why it hasn't been made into law so far.”

"The Nationality Law is critical in a time like this, when elements from within and without are trying to reject the Jewish people's right to a national home in its country and the recognition of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people," MK Avi Dicther (Likud), who first proposed the legislation, proclaimed.

"The Palestinian aspiration to eliminate the Jewish people's nation-state is no longer secret," Dichter added. "The State of Israel, which demands of its enemies to recognize it as the nation-state of the Jewish people and justifiably asks its supporters in the world to back this demand, needs to be able to declare in its highest legislative level that it proudly maintains this identify."